Cut, and... moving on!

THIS is incredibly frustrating. I have not been able to get online for more than a day now, and I am so itching to write, so at the moment I am writing in my Text Edit mode and I'll save the doc and copy and paste it later. This is my final post on www.charmcitythemovie.blogspot.com - go right now to www.smalltimorethemovie.blogspot.com to read about how the screening of the rough cut went, and to continue to keep up to date with the progress of the project. It has been an incredible year, writing this blog... time to move to the next level. Thanks for reading, and please continue to do so on the new blog!!!!

~ Jeanie

I Got You a Little Something...

I've posted some behind-the-scenes photos in an album on my Facebook page. You don't have to be a member to look at it:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50000&id=759412855&ref=mf

Merry Christmas!

"Take Care of the Luxuries...

...and the necessities will take care of themselves." This is probably my favorite quote of Dorothy Parker. Not only because it sort of gives me license to do whatever I want, but also because it is largely true.

Making a movie, despite it often being rather grueling work, is a luxury when it comes down to it. So many people out there want to do exactly that. Not that many get to.

With the emotional, financial, and physical assistance of a LOT of people, I got to do that. I put together the luxury, the screenplay, and one by one the necessities took (and are taking) care of themselves. Every time it seemed that I had reached the end of my resources, something or someone new popped up to help me solve the problem. Someone letting me use a location, someone sending me a check, someone tutoring me on an aspect of filmmaking I knew nothing about, whatever. And now that I am about to embark on the fine-tuning of the movie, this remains true.

As I have said here many times, "Smalltimore," is my love letter to Baltimore, and especially to the creative community that thrives here. I crammed over a dozen Baltimore artists' works into the film itself - paintings, sculptures, photos, even three different jewelry makers. And now it is time to really work on the soundtrack, which will be all original music by Baltimore musicians.

There were some people I had in mind from the very beginning who are already on board, such as T.T.Tucker & the Bum Rush Band, and Jennifer Swartout. There are a couple other local favorites whose music I used for the rough cut, but I haven't approached them yet about the real deal. I'll start that in January. When I secured Joyce J. Scott in the role of Mrs. Talford, I learned then that she had a CD of her own, and some of that music works PERFECTLY, so I am super-excited about that. You can see some of Joyce's paintings in the movie also, so she is truly the triple-threat of "Smalltimore."

There is another Baltimore singer/songwriter who I had in mind from the beginning, to be involved on the soundtrack. Her name is Niki Lee (www.nikilee.com). I had read about her in the City Paper a few years ago. She has a very interesting story, about how she secured the musical rights to Dorothy Parker's poetry from the NAACP for, I think, $600. An exemplary case of, "ya never know until you ask."

I got to see Niki perform those songs a couple summers ago at a show she had at the Creative Alliance. I didn't get to meet her at the time, but I did buy her CD, "Here Lies Dorothy Parker".

A couple weeks ago I started digging around online and found her website. I gathered from her blog that she had moved to California, and I thought, hmm, maybe she's blown up and she won't want to be involved, or she'll want a bunch of money that I don't have. I roamed around on her site and she has another CD out, titled, "Here". A little blurb about the CD says you can hear about her life in Baltimore in these songs, like the guy who lived in her driveway. I thought that was funny, and so Baltimore, and I looked at the title of the song, which bears his name. And this, being Smalltimore... I know the guy.

I figured that was a pretty good icebreaker, so I took a chance and wrote to Niki, sent her the link to the new trailer, and a few lines about the project and how I'd love to use some of her stuff, and that we have this mutual friend. She very graciously picked up the phone and called me from California last night. We had a good chat and she is psyched for me, and definitely wants in on it! I am so happy about this, and it is just the impetus I needed to get me to be EXCITED about going back to editing after New Year's. There are only a few scenes in the rough cut that have the permanent music laid in, and those scenes are so much more powerful because of it. I can't WAIT to get back to the drawing board!

A Bassist by Any Other Name...

Sleep is still screwed up. My mind won't shut off, though I have far less to do on a daily basis at the moment. I have not watched (and therefore have not edited) any part of the movie (other than the trailer a couple times) since I watched it straight through last Thursday. It is hard for me to stay away from it, even though I was looking forward to a break from it. There are things I know are wrong with it that I want to work on. But that won't change what I will be showing at the screening on Saturday anyway, so I am not watching any part of it for nine whole days so that I can see it with somewhat-fresh eyes, to see what else I need to fix, or maybe even what moments are just fine and I am being too critical of them.

I kind of miss seeing my cast every day, too, and I am looking forward to seeing almost all of them on Saturday. Every time I watch a scene, I think about the goofy things that happened while we were filming it. Unfortunately, since we were filming on the P2 cards, we didn't have the luxury of just letting the camera roll all the time and capturing a lot of those funny offscreen moments, because we had to conserve space on the cards. There were some days we filled them completely. But I remember the little screw-ups that were amusing, and for the most part have forgotten the ones that were annoying. Like having kids, you forgot the bad stuff quickly enough that it makes you want to make more...

Probably my favorite blunder was made by my brother. He came up from Florida in order to see me on the set for a day before going to Ocean City with some of my other relatives on vacation. I felt bad because I had ZERO time to hang out with him really, but it meant a lot to me that he was there and got to see behind the scenes for a day. It was one of the days we were filming at the Wind-Up Space, and I threw him into the scene as a bartender. You'll see him in the first scene that takes place there. Though he threw in a couple other lines that one would just naturally say to customers ("What can I get ya?", etc) I only gave him one SPECIFIC line. He had to hand a beer to one of the main cast, whose character name is Thom who is playing in a band in the bar. All Ted (my bro) had to do was hand Thom a beer as Thom walks offstage, and say, "ThomBomb!" This is Thom's nickname, and this action established that Thom is a regular, everybody knows and loves him.

As with any and every scene, we had to do it a bunch of times, due to noise issues, getting it from different angles, and getting a couple safeties once we got it right. Ted did good the first 5 or 6 times. How could he not, it is one word, right?

Somewhere around the 7th take I think, the five other people in the scene hit their marks and delivered their lines perfectly, and my brother approaches Thom with the beer, reaches in his direction, and clearly says, "ThomJOHN!"

No one flinched (and BELIEVE me, it was all I could do not to burst out laughing, but this was one of the days we were running short on card space), Ted walks off camera and looks at me like, "WTF?" Just the look on his own face, wondering how the hell he could have possibly screwed up ONE word, is an hysterical moment I will never forget. And, of course, will never let HIM forget.

And Miles to Go...

Sleep is not coming any easier to me, but I think it is just because my pattern is totally screwed up from going to bed in the wee hours of the morning for almost a week. Then I wake up when I have to, do things I have to do, then somewhere in the afternoon I can't keep my eyes open, fall out for an hour or two... I wake up refreshed, yes, but then I can't go to sleep until 4 or 5am again! This is getting me a little nuts.

It is nerves, too. I picked up the burned DVD from Charlie (God bless 'im) this afternoon and watched it straight through to make sure there are no surprises. There was only one word of dialogue that wasn't on there, and I am sure it is something that I accidentally deleted or pasted over while I was editing and is not a big deal at all.

I don't really know how to describe how I am feeling now. I feel like I should be saying things like, "relieved, happy, satisfied," etc. And I am certain I am all of those things, but I don't really feel them. I think I am just spent, an empty vessel, and I have to relax and wait for my reserves to fill back up.

Watching the movie on a 42" screen was way different than watching it on my laptop. I was afraid it was going to look worse, but it was actually more forgiving.

I write this blog because I want to be able to read back on my own experience later (because it is way too much to remember now), and I also want to give people who are interested in maybe doing the same thing, or just interested in hearing about the process, an inside look at how it all really happens. Sometimes I have committed the sin of omission about some of the bad things in order to keep the peace with people, or not be overly discouraging, or just because during the process I didn't want certain people (like my investors) to worry that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

I'm having one of those moments where I am considering censoring myself, but I think I'll go ahead and speak honestly, because several people I consult with regularly promise me that what I am feeling is normal and natural (and because the movie is really, truly in the can now, and it all worked out just fine).

The truth is, when you have spent literally several hundred hours poring over about 50 hours of footage - think about that, approximately three THOUSAND minutes of footage - and have to narrow it down to (currently) one hundred and three minutes... pardon my french, but you get pretty freakin' sick of looking at it. Think of your favorite joke, or song, or, hmm, scene in a movie, and then repeat it, listen to it, rewind and watch it at least 50, if not 100, times. Is it still funny, poignant, touching, or whatever you used to think it was? I think the word I am looking for is, "desensitized".

So I was pleasantly surprised when I watched the movie straight through today, and in the immortal words of my dear friend Tom Kyte, thought to myself, "This does not suck." Still needs a lot of massaging, but I am confident I am not going to embarrass myself, anyway. But I am still pretty sick of looking at it. And now I don't have to for EIGHT WHOLE DAYS! I am very excited about that.

I think why I am not dancing with joy, though, is because I am ever the hostess, and I will not be able to relax until next Saturday when I see with my own eyes that everyone who says they are coming to the screening actually arrives, and then see that they are having a good time and enjoy the movie, and then come to the reception afterwards. It is just the way I am. I know that all of those things will happen, but I won't relax until I see it with my own eyes.

It will. And when it does, I am going to DRINK my FACE off.

To Thine Own Selves Be True

I feel like I am waiting for the weight to lift from my shoulders. It is just sort of perched there now, no longer bearing down on me, but not exactly lifted either. I don't think I will be able to completely relax until tomorrow evening, after I pick up the compressed/rendered, burned DVD of the rough cut of the movie from Charlie, and then watch the whole thing through to make sure nothing is wrong. I mean, there is still going to be lots of things wrong with it, it is a rough cut. But I mean, I want to make sure none of the scenes that I have put together so far have done anything weird, like today when two of the songs that I had laid in mysteriously disappeared and I had to do the work all over again. I am sure it is something that I did wrong, which is why I was anxious to hand it off to Charlie, as it is far less likely (knock on wood) that he will screw it up.

On the way home I was driving past Belvedere Square, which is a mid-point between my place and Charlie's. I had not stopped in Grand Cru, owned by my friend Nelson, for some time, and I thought to myself, why wait to get home to celebrate? I didn't think he'd be there but I actually caught him in, shared some wine, invited him to the screening, and caught up a little bit.

On the way out I picked up a couple bottles of Framboise. Oh my GOD do I love this stuff... perfect to raise a glass to at home, by myself, while I let out an enormous exhale... which is exactly what I am doing right this very minute.

I may actually even sleep well tonight. I have not been able to drift off before 4:00am (and usually 5:00am) for the last 4 or five nights. Usually editing until at least 3:00am, then it takes me awhile to wind down.

It is such a mixed bag of emotions right now. Relieved, in that, as long as all goes well with the burn, I don't plan to do any work on the movie until after New Year's, giving me about two weeks to enjoy the holidays, friends and family, without feeling guilty that I am not working on the movie. It will be the first time I can really do that... well, in about a year! If the weather in the Poconos isn't too brutal, I want to get up there for a few days in the beginning of January, for once not to lock myself away and work my ass off, but to actually RELAX.

It won't be long-lived, though. I am happy with the rough cut, but it is that, rough, and there is still so much work to be done. The edits themselves, the cuts, need some finessing, smoothing over, drawing out some transitions so they aren't so abrupt, shortening others so they aren't so long they get boring, and I need to shave about ten minutes off the whole thing altogether, while somehow adding a scene that I wasn't able to finish in time for the rough cut. But the two things I am EXTREMELY anxious to do is the color correction and getting the music just right.

Music is weird. I have to watch more movies to see how it is really done well. The problem with watching movies is, for me, that I get so sucked into the story that it is hard for me to dissect it, to watch the cuts and transitions and lighting and angles and levels of conversation laid over background music, etc, etc... But I am kind of glad for that. I definitely see movies differently now, and I know I always will, but so far, making a movie has not completely ruined me for watching movies the way that growing up in the restaurant business ruined me for eating in restaurants for a very long time.

Now that I think about it, and actually HAVE THE TIME to indulge my stream-of-consciousness for the first time in... I don't know... skip back through my postings and you tell me... the difference is Baltimore.

My Dad owned and operated restaurants all my life, I grew up behind those scenes, and later waited tables and eventually managed a four-star restaurant in Washington, D.C (the Coeur de Lion, in the Henley Park Hotel). I used to make my Mother crazy because, just like my Dad, if we ate in a restaurant I had to sit with my back to the corner so I could observe (read: critique) every aspect of the room, the service, the presentation, and of course the food. I was constantly making comparisons, which at the time I think I enjoyed, but in retrospect sucked some of the fun out of it.

But movies are kind of different, or maybe it is just that I am different now, after having been in Baltimore for eleven years. I love eating in restaurants now, much more than I used to. I still notice things, I haven't unlearned anything, but it just doesn't bother me like it did when I was all my "Type-A" self back in D.C. I do see movies differently now, and I find myself talking about them constantly, dissecting them with other people who do the same thing. But I haven't lost the ability to get lost in a story. I do find it a little bit harder now, though, if it isn't a good story, well told.

I'm just... happier here, and I was pretty happy in D.C. Baltimore and D.C. are two completely different planets, though. Luckily, being a Gemini, I can appreciate them both for what they are. I am a business person, so one side of me relates to D.C., but I am also an artist, the side of me that relates to Baltimore. It took me a long time to be comfortable referring to myself as an artist in the company I keep here, because I know so many very, very talented artists. In D.C. it was easy to consider myself an artist, none of my friends were, really. They were all into politics, business. None of them wrote, painted, or even played an instrument that they ever mentioned. When I started making friends in Baltimore, I was so overwhelmed by the talent I met that at most I would consider myself to be "creative".

It has been a long journey, and I have had my hands in a lot of things since I have been here, but I finally feel I have found my voice, found what I was meant to do. I always liked the restaurant business, it came naturally to me, and that led to the hotel business, which did as well. But business is what I do, or rather, what I am capable of doing. Being an artist... that is who I am.

Mmmm, sexy...

I have spent more than 18 of the last 36 hours editing. I am on the verge of carpal tunnel syndrome and by tomorrow night (I have probably 8 to 12 more hours of work to do tomorrow before I turn it over to Charlie for him to compress, render, and generally wave a magic wand over the whole thing) I am certain my right hand will be nothing more than a shriveled claw, and I think I have developed a shoulder hump from sitting in front of this computer for so long. Yea baby, I am going to look damn hot for that screening at the Creative Alliance, lemme tell ya.

Can't blog...

...editing...

The New Trailer is UP!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMWrmxjr83k

And the REAL name of the movie is revealed!

T-Minus 18 Days, and Counting

Has it really been two weeks since I've posted? It's been a blur. But I am finally getting a chance to breathe a bit, which I should really stop doing if I want to get this rough cut done by December 27th! It will get done. Just had to get through Thanksgiving week, then some work stuff at my job-job, and today - I was the guest speaker at a class on "Baltimore in Film" at UMBC.

I had never done anything like that before, and it turned out to be really fun. I think that "Acting for the Camera" class I took with Steve Yeager at the Creative Alliance last month really helped my nerves, this wasn't nearly as scary! The Professor, Kimberly Moffitt, was very nice and the students (about 40) seemed interested and asked a lot of questions and I didn't notice anyone sleeping. The angle I was addressing was, "Why Baltimore?", which I discuss in almost every posting in one way or another, so I won't bore you with a recap. Then we watched the trailer I made (with loads of help from Sean Stanley & crew) one year ago - and then we watched ( don't be mad, Cast!) a rough version of the NEW trailer, which I worked on (with some help from Kyle Holtgren, my actor who plays David) for six hours last night. There are a few things I still need to smooth out, but I hope to have up on YouTube by week's end. Both trailers seemed to go over well, and it was fun for me to see them back-to-back and see an objective audience's reaction to them. One of the things I am very excited about in the new trailer is that I used my FAVORITE song by my friends T.T. Tucker & the Bum Rush Band, "America is One Tough Town." It is PERFECT. Tucker & the boys worked really hard to get this song recorded for me in time to use it for the rough cut and I am very grateful to them for that. THANK YOU Tucker, Jamie, Wayne, Craig, Stevie & Lump! You guys literally ROCK.

As I've said, I've been really happy with the editing so far, but I haven't laid music in to any of the other stuff because everything is not perfectly set yet. But doing this trailer last night rejuvenated my spirit to get back to working hard on the edit, because now I can't wait to lay the rest of the music in! It makes a good piece SO much better, and it also helps to cover little mistakes and sound issues along the way.

I was glad to be able to speak at this class for a lot of reasons. For the sheer experience of it, and to meet the students, for starters. Preparing for the class and what questions they might have gave me the opportunity to take a moment and review the last year of my life and see how I got from Point A (embodied by the first trailer) to Point B (embodied by the second). I gave credit to as many people as I could as I spoke to them, because I sure as hell didn't do this all by myself - to my sounding boards and compatriots that kept me sane: Sean, Michelle, and Eric; to my amazing cast (Cheryl & Orlando, I bragged about you two toughing out the convertible scene in mid-November!); to my film & production crew, including my Army of Interns; to the Creative Alliance, which is an incredible resource I can't say enough good things about; to my incredibly generous investors, Tom, Mikey, and Dan (I told the students, "Make friends with smart people NOW - they will be the ones with money 20 years from now!"); to my friends who loaned me their homes, businesses, and sometimes even their acting talent to enrich the film; to the many artists and musicians who loaned me their work and further upped my production values; and to Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts for making jumping through a few hoops relatively inexpensive and painless.

Professor Moffitt (Kimberly) treated me to lunch afterwards, and one of her enthusiastic students, Winona, joined us. There I found out that Kimberly only moved here about three years ago and is not Baltimore's biggest fan yet. So now, as if I need more on my plate, it is my mission to convert her! So I invited her to the screening. I realize that having her meet a great many of my crazy friends and colleagues en masse is a plan that may send her packing her bags for NormalTown, but it is a chance I am willing to take. These are the people I know and love, the people that put the "Charm," in "Charm City," and life in this City with them is a lot of things, but it is never boring. Can't wait!

Quickie

Hey there, just a short one (I can do that once in awhile! Just watch me!). The holidays and mental exhaustion are slowing me down. Friends are coming into town for dinner tonight, my brother comes into town tomorrow. I'm so brain-dead I thought he was coming in TODAY and I spent an hour at the airport waiting and searching for him, thought about getting belligerent with the counter personnel who said they couldn't even tell me if he got on the flight, thought better of it, worried the whole way home that he had been in an accident on the way to the airport, got home and checked my email and discovered my mistake.

I am quite psyched about Thanksgiving this year. My brother and I are going to our original hometown of Greensburg, PA, and with our Mom are having T-day dinner at the home of my best friend from high school, Lauren. I've been able to round up a few more high school friends that I haven't seen in a very long time, so we are having a mini-reunion of sorts. The Small Chill.

A kind soul by the name of Lucia at the Maryland Film Festival office pointed out to me that there is an extended deadline for the MFF if you register through www.withoutabox.com. I looked at the site and it is pretty cool, loads of info on a multitude of festivals. Haven't had time to read the nitty-gritty, but looks like a great resource, and takes some pressure off me to have another 5 weeks or so to smooth things out.

Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone! Drive carefully and do not count calories! You'll hear from me soon...

Picking up the Pieces

It feels like a long time since I have written, though it has only been a little over a week. I got SO much done up at Mikey's cabin, which is good because I don't feel like I've accomplished much this week. But that's not true at all. Tuesday and Wednesday we finally shot the last of our pick-up days, involving actors Cheryl Scungio, Orlando Gonzales, and Johnny Benson. And of course Michelle was back with her crew.

Both were relatively short days. Tuesday was only six hours of filming, all at Fin Art, the gallery of artist Charles Lawrence, in Fells Point. We had already filmed there one full day way back in August during production, but there were a couple scenes we didn't have time for that day. There is no A/C in the gallery, so in August it was a million degrees, and Tuesday we had the opposite problem - no heat. But that is a lot easier to deal with and the day went FAIRLY smoothly. There was still one bit of a scene that we missed, I'll just have to live without it. The scenes that we did get are great and I really needed them. But we, as a team, weren't really clicking along that day, I felt. Chemistry was fine, speed just wasn't there. It wasn't exactly the same team that was together in August, and even if it had been we hadn't been together for a few months, so there was no groove. And something I love about my cast but often slows us down is their real-life chemistry. They all really like each other and they never stop talking. This happened even in initial production, but throw on top of that that they haven't seen each other in months, and it leads to me getting a little cranky because I have to call actors to the set several times, each time, and then ask for quiet several times, each time. But, you can never have it all. I'd rather have that and they just think I'm kinda bitchy than have actors who think I'm great but hate each other so they don't talk at all. Their real-life chemistry really shines through onscreen, and that in the end is what counts.

The scenes in Fin Art are some of my favorites, the set is SO rich and colorful, it is exactly what I wanted those scenes to be. I have said many times I could not be happier with the casting, but the same can be said of the locations. I am lucky to have a diverse group of loyal friends and creative compatriots who allowed me into their homes and businesses to use them as sets. Charles Lawrence's Fin Art is but one example. Others are Russell DeoCampo (The Wind-Up Space), Bill Dougherty (Dougherty's Pub), and Lynn Hafner (Dionysus Lounge) for my bar scenes, and I even have a scene in Baltimore Theater Project (thanks, Anne Fulweiler). Other friends who loaned me their homes, and sometimes their onscreen talent, are Phil Baty & Ron Peltzer ("Mrs. Simpson's" home), Steve Shen (interior courthouse scene), Dave Herman (Bentley's apartment), Greg Mirkin (Tony's house), and Caren Shelley (Gracie's house). Add to that some exterior scenes in Mount Vernon Square, Federal Hill Park, and the War Memorial, plus of course Government House (Mrs. Talford's mansion and Mel's apartment), and loads of Baltimore B-roll, and I have quite a rich and textured palette in my hands. It is truly shaping up to be almost exactly as I had envisioned.

Wednesday filming went a bit smoother. Knocked out the scene at Theater Project, one more scene at Greg's house, and FINALLY a certain car scene that we had filmed part of back in August. This was yet another lesson learned. SInce it was a car scene, I wasn't thinking of it as an exterior scene, and you should always shoot your exterior scenes first. But a car scene IS an exterior. Think about it, you have to have the trees and lighting match, and natural lighting is seasonal. Luckily, for me, it was a night car scene, so that wasn't quite as important. Not so luckily, for actors Cheryl and Orlando, it was a car scene in my car. A convertible. With the top down. And wearing summer clothes. And don't forget Orlando had to drive with a light shining in his face!

Cheryl was wearing a thin halter dress. I really don't even know how she did it. When I arrived at Theater Project earlier that day, around noon, by the time I walked less than half a block from my car to the theater, my fingers were numb. Cheryl had to do this scene in a car in motion at almost 8:00pm! As I walked up the steps to Theater Project, I was very aware of what I was going to have to ask her to do later, and I thought, it's a good thing this is the very last shot I need her for, because she is going to hate my guts after this. Orlando wasn't much better off, but at least he had long sleeves.

But they were troopers and did not even complain! They know it is a piece that was crucial, so they stuck it out.

Michelle was great, too. She doesn't have in her gear package the lights that are specifically designed for car interiors, and they are outrageously expensive to buy or even rent. But she promised me they would figure something out, and they did. The scene will cut together well. This was the scene that kept me up nights. If I didn't have it, I would be completely screwed, it was so important to the entire rhythm of the film.

SO, make SURE you get your car scenes during initial production!

Continuity... always an issue. No matter how low-budget your project is, bribe some anal-retentive friend into being your continuity person, and take photos of EVERYTHING. I swear, in my next movie, no one wears any jewelry! That killed me more than once. And if you are directing, you can't possibly keep track of these things, props, etc. When we were filming the last scene at Greg's house on Tuesday, Cheryl (Gracie) walks onto the porch with two bottles of wine in her hands. While they were setting up for the next part of the scene, from the interior, where she actually enters the house, I thought I'd be smart and expedite things a little. I needed some cutaways of the wine being poured, and the wine bottle with at various levels of being full, to indicate time passing. So I opened one of the bottles. And then the lights were ready for the next part of the scene. Where she enters with the two bottles. One of which is now open.

CURSES!!!!!

Luckily, most of my friends drink and Greg is no exception, and there happened to be a similar shaped bottle of unopened wine on his counter, so she carried that.

So. You might think I am a little scattered. But I know that there are plenty of people who, having read this, will want to see the movie just to pick out all these little things. That is fine with me, I will own my rookie mistakes, I am totally comfortable with that. But then, after seeing it once to nitpick the details, you'll have to see it again to catch the storyline that you missed the first time around. So you see, I am scattered. Scattered like a fox ;)

Painting Myself into Corners

I am allotting myself only 20 minutes for this post, and only because I got up earlier than I had planned to. I'm up at Mikey's cabin in the Poconos at the moment, and I am picking him up from the bus stop (conveniently located in the parking lot of the local beer & liquor distributor - one stop shopping!) at 6:45pm this evening. From there it is dinner at Louie's Prime, so the evening will be shot as far as working, but I am really looking forward to seeing Mikey. He couldn't coe down last time I came up, so it has been about 2 months since I've seen him.

Editing is going very well, though it does contain some very frustrating moments. There are a few scenes I am dreading working on, one that I don't have nearly enough coverage on, another that is an exterior and we were battling clouds all day, and at least one more extremely long scene. I've already muddled through a few of those. I have several scenes that are 3 to 5 minutes long, which in movie time is REALLY long. But they are scenes where people come and go, so it is actually like 2 or 3 scenes in one. I don't think it will be boring to watch, but goddamn is it boring to edit! It takes me about an hour to edit each minute of film (sometimes more), because I am green but also because I am very picky. So for the long scenes I am spending 4 to 5 hours editing looking at the same location, faces, dialogue... I am an instant-gratification kinda girl (don't ask me why I'm making a movie, then, I've been asking myself that very question quite often lately), and have a lot more fun editing 1 to 2 minutes scenes and having something to show for it relatively quickly.

I have a total of almost FIFTY minutes of movie roughed out, which is pretty awesome, because that's about half the film! 14 or 15 minutes of that I did on this trip so far, plus about 5 hours worth of labeling video clips, about 16 hours work total, and I've only been up here a day and a half. If I can get a total of 30 minutes roughed out while I am here, I will have met my goal, if I can get 35 done, I will be ECSTATIC.

There is a lot more to do after that, mostly smoothing out the sound, a very fine and delicate art. Charlie has offered to help, once I get the rough cut completed, to finesse it with me. The speed bump in the path to timely success is, of course, the holidays. My brother is coming up from Florida the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and he'll be with me for a week. Within that week we are going to Pennsylvania to see my Mom and some old friends, so really I can't count on getting anything done during that time.

But I really only started editing (not including labeling clips, which took an additional 2 days) on November 2, and I got 50 minutes done in 10 days. If I can keep that pace for the next 10 days, I should have a VERY rough cut done before Thanksgiving, and be on track to start smoothing it out at the beginning of December, which will be perfect.

I just found out that the deadline for submissions to the Maryland Film Festival is December 19th, when all this time I thought it was in January. I had already painted myself into a corner by promising cast & crew to screen a rough cut on December 27th, and now I have 8 days less to work on it!

But that's all right, I am on pace to get it done by then, if I don't slow down, or, you know, SLEEP. Plus then I can have that weight off my shoulders and enjoy Christmas.

Damn it! 10:33am. Gotta get crackin'. I can't get much of an internet connection up here, so may have to save this as a draft and post later. Isolation is the best way for me to get things done, though. And thank goodness that today it is pouring outside, and supposed to rain all day. Yesterday it was sunny and gorgeous, and it was SO difficult to stay inside in front of my computer screen.

AAAAAAAND cut!... and Cutting, Continued

Finished my two-day acting workshop with Steve Yeager at the Creative Alliance on Saturday, and I am happy to say I'm pretty sure I rocked it out. The thing I was most nervous about was the monologue that I was assigned. It was a long piece, probably a good four minutes, and to be honest I wasn't crazy about it at first. But after I read it over about 10 times, the subtleties of it began to surface and I could finally see the meat on it, and the opportunity to show a range.

The great part was that the character started off as being very nervous, as did I! So I OWNED my nervousness. :) By the time I was halfway through the piece, at about the time the character calmed down, I hadn't stumbled once and I knew the rest, so I, too, calmed down, and was able to pull the rest off without a hitch. As soon as Steve yelled, "Cut!" he was laughing, and a few comments from my classmates let me know I had done a good job.

I was talking to my brother, Ted, on the phone last night about it. I told him it was really scary for me to do this, and he said, as most people who know me would, that he would never have guessed that about me. But it is true nonetheless. Through the entire process of making this film, through writing, receiving critique from colleagues and friends, putting myself out there to meet new people and make new contacts, negotiating contracts with crew, locations, etc, auditioning and casting actors, rehearsing with the actors, the whole circus of production, including directing the whole thing, NOT ONCE did my heart beat as hard and fast as it did whenever I had to get up in front of that camera for these past two Saturdays. I can honestly say I have never pushed myself so far outside my comfort zone on purpose.

But I am very glad I did. And by the time we were doing more scenes and exercises after lunch on the second Saturday, I was fine and my heart was only fluttering a bit, not the big, pounding bass drum it had been up until that point whenever Steve would say, "Action!"

My brother asked me if I walked away from the class with whatever it was I had been looking for. I said, absolutely. I pushed my own limits and allowed myself to be vulnerable at the same time. I got to spend some time with Steve Yeager, an award-winning Director and professor at Towson University. I put myself in the actor's shoes, and for that I will be a better director. And of course, I have even more respect for actors than I did before. I certainly wouldn't want to make MY living doing that. It's exhausting. I was emotionally drained by the time I got home, and compared to a regular day on the set for an actor, that class was chump change.

Tonight I am heading over to Charlie's for some more editing instruction. I have about 25 scenes edited, and it is going quite well, though I still have SO much to do, and I am trying to make a deadline now of December 19th to submit Charm City for entry in the Maryland Film Festival. It's going to be TIGHT. But I think I can do it.

Yesterday I didn't get any editing done. But I think I'll go to the Poconos this week and I can do double the work up there, cuz there is NOTHING else to distract me, until Mikey shows up with a box of wine. Yesterday I went instead to Harper's Ferry for the day with Eric, where he tricked me into climbing a mountain, a charge he vehemently denies. But, my blog, so that's the story I am sticking to. He needed some establishing shots there to use in his film, and it was a beautiful, crisp fall day, so why not? I minimized my guilt by listening to CDs of local Baltimore bands to see if I could find additional music for the soundtrack. I found a few things, too, so see, I was productive after all! Hurray for multi-tasking! My car is the only place I can listen attentively to music, and since I live in the building I work in, sometimes I will go for days without getting in my car.

So on top of all of the above, I am trying to schedule two more days of pick-up shots next week so I can close this thing out. Except for one scene I still need with my favorite skinny poet, Al Letson (www.alletson.com). If I don't see him in Baltimore by then, I may be road-tripping to Florida in February to see my brother, and I'll stop in Jacksonville on the way there or back and get the footage I need of Al. The things we do for art!

Gotta get ready for my meeting with Charlie...

Continuing Education

As much as I like learning new things, it is also very frustrating to me, because when I am interested in something I want to know all there is to know and I want to know it RIGHT NOW. Never works that way, though.

I am well into the editing process now, though I only know the very basics. But as far as splicing the scenes together, I am getting the hang of that pretty quickly, and for the most part I really enjoy editing. Mostly because it doesn't involve scheduling a bunch of people whose schedules never match. I can roll out of bed and edit a scene or two in my pajamas, walk away from my computer whenever I am getting agitated and go right back to it whenever the mood strikes me. I have about 25 scenes edited so far (out of maybe 120), and ya know, I just keep on learning lessons along the way that will be oh-so-helpful if I ever put myself through the sweet, sweet hell of making a movie again. Which I am certain I will.

Such as, if ya gotta skimp somewhere (which you always gotta, unless you have an unlimited budget), skimp on the wide shots and NOT the coverage (singles/close-ups of individual actors). I did not know this. Wish I had. I kind of thought the opposite, that the whole, complete, wide shot was the most important piece of the puzzle, but it is really not. Watch any TV show or movie and dissect the scene and you will figure this out. You usually only see the wide shot for a few seconds at the very beginning, and then it is all coverage of the people speaking. Yet another lesson learned.

And a very, very, very important lesson -when the last second of the scene has ended, count to at least 3, if not 5, before yelling "cut". It helps enormously during the editing process.

And another thing, anyone who tells you, "Oh, you can do that in post," (a) usually isn't the person that would have to do that in post, (b) definitely isn't the person who will have to PAY for whatever-it-is being done in post, and (c) if they are the person who would be doing it in post, is just padding their paycheck. Your movie, ANY movie, will look better the LESS you have to do "in post". To see what I am talking about, rent a movie called (I think) "Duane Roane: First-Time Director". This stars Andy Dick (who normally, I hate). Having been through the process, every time he says, "We'll just do it in post," I about hit the floor laughing.

Lesson #381: Cutaways.
You can never have too many cutaways. You have, say, a scene where a guy is making breakfast for a woman who has spent the night. Say, this is the last scene you are shooting that day and you are behind schedule and don't want to go into overtime, and it is not a long scene so you do it, say, all in one take in a wide shot, maybe three times. When you go to edit that scene, say you see that in two of the three takes you can CLEARLY see the big fat light shining through the glass door to make it look like morning sunlight. So you are stuck with that one and only take that you can't see the big fat light in, which, say, wasn't even the best take that the actors did. But (a) you have no coverage and (b) you have no cutaways, that could have possibly covered the few seconds that you see the big fat light. The CORRECT answer would have been, instead of three takes of the wide shot, one take of the wide, and one coverage of each of the two actors, and a few extra minutes to film close-up cutaways of pouring a glass of juice, scrambling eggs in a pan, a fork moving eggs around on a plate, ANYTHING so you have something to cut to when an actor stutters for a split second or a BIG FAT LIGHT is in the shot.

Another thing that I don't think I have mentioned so far but have thought about/dealt with a LOT, between "Charm City" and "Juju" - make sure you have an Assistant Director. Now, I think that job title is extremely misleading, which is why I didn't have one on Charm City. An Assistant Director does not direct. If an Assistant Director (AD) starts directing, that person is overstepping his or her bounds. That is not their job. An AD keeps things moving, and if they are doing their job well, is often not very popular among the cast and crew. The AD's job is to make sure EVERYONE is where they are supposed to be when they are supposed to be there, if not 5 minutes ago. They are on the crew's asses to get the lights set up and camera ready, they are on props to have the set dressed, they are on the actors to be in makeup and wardrobe, and they are the one to "lock down" the set (i.e., to tell everyone to shut the hell up when the camera is about to roll).

I tried to do this all myself on Charm City, and it was extremely difficult. To this day I don't know if it was Michelle's idea or if her film crew took it upon themselves, but after the first 4 or 5 days, someone from the crew would pick up the slack and lock down the set, for which I was very grateful. I was so sick of hearing my own voice, and I am sure everyone else on the set felt the same way. As I am editing, I am especially aware of how stressed out I was at the time (which, thank goodness, I wasn't TOTALLY aware of in the middle of it all). It is apparent in my voice, and sometimes when the camera would catch me (Michelle likes to turn the camera on to the crew when we are running room tone), I looked so stressed, and to me, several years older than I am, and older than I look now when the weight of production is no longer on my shoulders.

Lesson, say it with me, learned.

I gotta roll now. Have to finish learning my lines for two scenes I have to do in Steve Yeager's acting class tomorrow. Plus Eric is showing up soon to set some things up to film at my place over the weekend. I used to have so much FREE time in my life before I got into all this. What the hell was I thinking?!? But, I kid... I've never been busier. But I've never been happier. I am finally doing what I believe I was really, truly cut out for, though just 2 or 3 years ago I could never have imagined doing this. It is a pretty awesome feeling.

Zone Issues

Today was very scary. It was the first day of a 2-part "Acting for the Camera" workshop I decided to take at the Creative Alliance. The only acting I have ever done, ever, was in my initial trailer for Charm City. That experience wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, and was kinda fun, but that is largely due to Sean being such a great director, and also I had been writing and rewriting all the dialogue for the last 2 years, so I knew the material inside-out. Today was nothing like that.

The class is taught by Steve Yeager, and one of the reasons I signed up for it is because I have heard his name a lot in certain circles, and I always see him attending or speaking at film festivals and such. Wednesday evening I got an email from him saying I needed to prepare a 2-minute monologue for class on Saturday. I couldn't get anywhere near that on Thursday because we were filming our last (if there is a God) day of pick-ups for Juju. I was meeting up with friends late afternoon on Friday, so that gave me only a couple hours to find or write something and commit it to memory.

At first I was going to do a bit from the movie "Beautiful Girls", when Rosie O'Donnell's character reads her guy friends the riot act about fantasizing about silicone-filled Playboy models and not giving "real" women a chance. It's a good little speech, funny but true, and a movie moment that sticks in my head, so why not? I found the monologue of it online very easily and had it down pretty quickly. Something was bugging me about it, though.

I ran it by Eric via email, he thought it was okay but used the word "feminist". Hmm. Nothing wrong with being a feminist, but those sorts of rants do turn off a lot of people, and I didn't want anyone tuning out due to the content, even if the context was funny.

So I dug a little deeper in my video collection, much of which is old Silver Screen stuff, and I wanted something more contemporary so it would feel more natural. I saw my VHS tape of "Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean." I love this movie, so much so that I also at some point bought the play script of it. I dug that up, too, and started flipping through it to see if there was anything I could use. I found the part where Sissy (played by Cher), the busty and boisterous sexpot of the group, comes clean about a secret that she has managed to keep for three years - she had to have a double-masectomy, and her husband that she liked to brag on so much left her in the aftermath.

I liked this one better for a lot of reasons. Once I started thinking about delivering my monologue from the side of the Director or Casting Agent, the "Beautiful Girls" piece just wasn't good enough. First off, I found it too easily, which to me says it is used a lot. When I attended the Stonehenge auditions (searching for cast for Charm City) in May, there were some monologues that I saw 5 or 6 times that day! When you do that, to me at least it says that you didn't put a lot of thought into your choice, you chose something safe, and you only end up having the casting agent (consciously or subconsciously) compare you against the other people who had the same monologue. And if you weren't the one who did it best, sianora.

Secondly, it didn't have much depth, and no range. Just straight up sarcastic comedy. While the "Jimmy Dean" piece started off with Sissy being very strong, a little angry even, then dissolving in her own vulnerability, but finally coming out on top and being able to laugh about it. It is really hard to find something that packs all that into 2 or 3 minutes! I ran it by Eric, and he liked this one better, too. "People like stories about boobs," he said. "Even when they're sad ."

I searched online and couldn't find it anywhere, so I copied the text from the script myself and got to work on it. I got it down in time for Happy Hour, and woke up this morning reciting it before I got out of bed, and over and over in the shower. I was as set as I was going to be.
So of course we didn't do monologues today. Seemed only one other person in the class got the memo. Oh, well. No biggie. Good practice for memorization.

There are several reasons why I decided to take this class. First off was the opportunity to work with Steve Yeager. Secondly, I felt it would help me with my directing to get the actors point of view (POV, for those of you looking to pick up the movie lingo :) ). Thirdly, I wanted just another taste of the acting thing for kicks, but mostly I took this class to push myself out of my comfort zone, which it surely did.

In almost any situation I am as cool as a cucumber, and in general I feel there's "nothing I can't handle". But my Achilles Heel has always been and continues to be public speaking, and I am determined to get over that.

Day One did push me, a lot. The first exercise we did is what Steve referred to as a "personalization". Just talking directly to the camera for 2 minutes, telling a personal (true) story about something that affected or changed your life. My classmates had some compelling stories, from drug addiction to first loves to near-death experiences. I talked about my father's death. I'll tell you what I told the camera.

My Dad died five years ago, of pancreatic cancer, at the ripe old age of 56. I was able to spend the last five weeks of his life with him. I was often trapped in his little two-room house in Florida, alone, for much of that time. I didn't have a car and relied on my brother to drive me back and forth to the hospice after he got off work every day. The house wasn't walking distance from anywhere, so all I could do all day was eat spaghetti and watch movies and football until my brother came to get me . I got so bored that I cleaned every square inch of the house. And in every drawer, in the closets and cupboards, manila envelopes in his filing cabinets and shoeboxes in his closet, I found Camel Cash - little "dollars" they used to put in every pack of Camel cigarettes. My Dad was a 2-pack a day guy.

I organized and counted them - eight THOUSAND dollars of Camel Cash. That is 160,000 cigarettes. At the hospice I asked, "Daddy, why do you have all this Camel Cash? Why haven't you traded it in?" Dad had gotten things like pool cues, leather jackets, ashtrays over the years by saving up these things. He said, "They started giving bigger prizes. I almost have enough saved for a trip to Vegas."

Of course, Dad never got to take that trip, because the cigarettes killed him first.

At this point in my personalization, both my voice and I were shaking and it was touch and go as to whether or not I would actually cry. But I wrapped it up.

I can't tell you how angry that makes me. But it made me more determined to live my life, the way I had already been living it, the way I will always live it: I don't wait for rainy days. I make things happen. I don't wait for things to happen to me. I make them happen.

That sentiment has everything to do with filmmaking.

Through the whole process of making Charm City, even when I was winging it, I was still in the driver's seat, and I had some great people around me as my safety net, so I was never completely at a loss. Outside of my comfort zone now and then, but nothing like today, standing alone in front of that camera. My voice was not just shaking because I was telling a sad story. I was just a big bundle of nerves.

When I finished my story, Steve stepped from behind the camera to put an arm around me and ask me if I was okay. So I think I did a decent job of being vulnerable. That is not the hard part to me, though. I'll talk about my Dad all day long and I don't care if I cry in front of people when I do. What is really hard for me is to do something in front of people, something that I don't know, and am not good at. THAT, to me, is being vulnerable. We did another exercise where we had to memorize a sort of "public service announcement". That was SO much harder, to me, than just telling a story that I knew. Mine was a "Vote Pro-Choice" commercial, and instead of saying "Hundreds of thousands of women have suffered the dangers of back alley abortions," I kept saying, "Hundreds of thousands of women have suffered the dangers of back YARD abortions." Like it's something you'd do at the neighborhood barbeque. Sheesh.

I felt very hot, like my face was turning very red, and my voice, to me, sounded as shaky as it had on the first test. But when Steve played back our bits to us, I was surprised to see that it didn't look nearly as bad as it FELT. I can't say that it was fun (though I am hoping that by next week it will be), but it served its purpose. I'm determined to conquer this thing.

Choices Made

If you think I was being a little bit of a baby the other day about the criticism of Charm City that I stumbled upon, I wouldn't necessarily disagree with you. I looked at it again, and it wasn't all that terrible, and had some truth to it. The larger part of my problem was not what was said but who said it, and the forum in which they said it. I won't waste any more time thinking about it, it is not that big a deal. It just caught me at a vulnerable moment so I may have overreacted a little bit.

You do have to have a thick skin in this business, as this stuff happens all the time. I try to be supportive of other filmmakers I have come to know, even if whatever they are creating is not really my thing. I learn a lot more (and accumulate more allies) by keeping an open mind than by ripping everyone else's work apart. I believe that there is no one that I cannot learn something from, though sometimes it is learning what NOT to do. But those lessons are equally if not more important than learning HOW to do things.

I know I made a lot of rookie mistakes on Charm City and I am fine with that. I would like to believe that 98.5%... okay, maybe 94.5%... of the cast and crew who worked on the film would willingly work with me again. And that's the other thing about this business, at least in Baltimore. You're going to end up working with people you are not crazy about if you do more than one or two projects, so the fewer lines you draw and enemies you make, the better. There might be cast or crew from Charm City that I would not hire again. But I will not always be in the driver's seat, there will be other productions (knock on wood!) like Juju that I freelance on and am not in charge of hiring or casting, and may find myself working side by side with someone not of my choice.

Anyway... I just finished three days of pick-up shots for Charm City. I think one more day and I will have everything I need. I need to get three of the actors together that day, and that has been tough, but we will get it done. They have been very cooperative and I am grateful for that. We really took our time with the scenes we shot this week and they look great.

Michelle wasn't available yesterday but my two lead actors were, so Eric filled in as DP for me so we could knock some stuff out. After we wrapped last night, Eric and I looked at a LOT of the footage from the 2 weeks of principle photography. I am really happy with it, all of the elements are there. The acting is great, the cinematography is sharp, and I have to say we had some stellar locations that combined make the film look even better than I had hoped for. I was initially worried about so much of the footage being shot in the interiors of bars, but now I think it will be fine, as it will be broken up with a lot of other stuff, and it is a well-balanced mix. We had three bars but they each have a different look and feel to them; five homes/apartments, which were even more distinctive - two very luxurious mansions, a warehouse apartment, a "masculine", straight-forward house, for lack of better description, and a more feminine, artsy house; our outdoor scenes (for which the weather was perfect) were very Baltimore - Federal Hill Park, Mount Vernon Square, and the War Memorial across from City Hall; also my friend Steve's house served as our Courthouse interior (and Steve as our Justice of the Peace), and Charles Lawrence's gallery in Fells Point doubled as Moxie Gallery. Those interiors were so rich and colorful, I can't wait to start editing those scenes. I am probably forgetting a few locations, but those were the main ones and I believe a good mix. We also have a few car scenes of conversations in moving cars.

What I am missing a lot of is single coverage, or close-ups of one person at a time. It is an ensemble cast and in some of the scenes there were sometimes EIGHT people coming and going from the same conversation. I'd still be filming if we did the wide shot and then shot singles of EVERYONE. So I had to make a lot of choices along the way of where I had to skimp on coverage to stay on schedule and under budget. These pick-up days have been nice because they were scenes that were important to get a lot of coverage and we took our time because we only shot about 2 pages a day. We averaged SEVEN pages a day during principle photography, and there were a couple days in there we did ten or eleven! But again, I think I have a balanced mix of scenes where I do and do not have coverage. And I myself LIKE scenes that show more than one person during the conversation. I think they help the actors to stay in character if they know the camera is on them. It is easy to let performance slip if you know it is someone else's close-up and you are not in the shot, plus it is easier, I think, for the actor not to OVER-do it if they are in a scene with someone else. Sometimes if they know it is their close-up, they ham it up a bit too much. And especially for a "talkie" with loads of dialogue about personal relationships, I like to see the body language of the person who is not speaking in the scene. I think in important moments that is just as important as focusing on the person who is talking.

So I can live with all of that. I find myself saying that a lot, now that I am in post. It's a good thing, because if I couldn't live with it, I still wouldn't have much choice in the matter. It is in the can and I only have a little bit of money leftover for post-production.

Well, I have to go finish putting together the schedule for Juju's pick-up days so I better get rolling. One more week of that to get through, then I can really concentrate on editing Charm City. Can't wait to really dig in.

Let the Games Begin (or, Continue...)

Today was a mixed bag. On top of my day job, which is in flux for reasons too complicated to get into, I'm trying to schedule both my pick-up days for Charm City and the pick-up days for Juju. I've got a decent handle on all three... it is just a lot of balls to keep in the air.

Some stuff in my personal life going on, too, making me reflect on decisions that brought me to where I am today. Things that initially make one think, oh my god, if I only would have done this or stuck with that, I'd be in a totally different place right now, life would be completely different!... and I would be, and it would be... and it would not be the right place or the right life for me, because where I am is where I should be. Where I am, I don't have all the answers, I am not at my final destination, I have not reached all my goals... how boring would life be if I did? I've gotten this far without running out of questions and the desire to learn more than I know now. Don't see that changing anytime soon.

I have finally, but just barely, started the editing process. Through a nice barter deal with a great guy, Charlie Anderson of Stratatek Studios, I am learning the ropes, one on one.

Though at first I found it frustrating (because I had to step away from my own project), now I am so glad that immediately after wrapping principle photography on Charm City I started working on Juju. Going back to look at the footage after not having seen it for 2 months gives me a great deal of perspective. I see now that there are some shots I didn't know to insist upon, and there are some shots that I insisted I could live without that I should have gotten. But still, I am confident that through the magic of editing I can come up with a decent product in the end. Could it be better? Of course! But that is what first features are for. Of COURSE I would love for this to be my big splash, and I'll do everything I can to make that happen. But will this be my masterpiece? God, I hope not! If so, there would be no place to go but down, right? I have no delusions of grandeur in that regard.

But I will admit that I would like for people to respect what I have accomplished to date, or, at a minimum, not shit all over it. At the same time, it is a fine line for me to walk. It is complicated... I am not sure how to explain it... egos everywhere, including mine, I'm sure. There are so many people I have met, and learned from, and just flat out revered. To name a few: Sean Stanley, Michelle Farrell, and Eric Thornett. These three are the Indie Holy Trinity as far as I am concerned. Flip back through previous posts just to get a taste of what they have helped me through, and continue to help me through. I started off knowing each of them by bartering services or resources that aided both parties, but more importantly now, they are my friends.

But I digress, sort of...

On my shoot, a few people chose to tell me, sometimes in rather harsh terms, what they thought I was doing wrong, or should do better, or basically should have known coming out of the womb... I tried to take it all in stride. I suppose sometimes I did and sometimes I didn't, I don't know. Nothing I couldn't live with, no mistakes I couldn't own. Never claimed to be perfect, or even know what I was doing. That's what first productions are for. It made me a better Production Manager for Juju. This was that production team's first feature-length. Sometimes when I just wanted to bitch, I remembered how it made me feel when people on my team on Charm City did that... and I kept my mouth shut. If it was something important, I would say it, to their (the producers) faces (not via email, or text message, or voicemail) and at an appropriate (read: private) time and place. Like any business, there is a hierarchy in filmmaking. If you want to cause a scene, create drama, you can certainly earn a name for yourself - among your peers and subordinates. But there are several things more important to keep in mind: (1) the people you are impressing by behaving this way are generally not the people who hired you, (2) the people who hired you are not likely to be impressed, (3) this business is an incredibly small microcosm, so (4) the people who hired you know other people who may or may NOT hire you.

But it is not just about even that, to me. It is about respect, and integrity. I am just a little disillusioned at the moment... today I found something online, accidentally, written about Charm City by someone who had worked on the production. Not only had I personally signed this person on to the project, and enjoyed working with that person throughout, I then went out on a limb to get that person hired onto Juju, with pay, and mid-production went further out on that limb to get that person more money.

Double-whammy to me is that person is female. Filmmaking is a Boys' Club, no doubt. I am not complaining, though, because it gives me an edge. Female Writer/Producer/Directors are few and far between, especially in the Indie world. It gives me a hook. I'll take it. But to be slammed by another female, a female that I hired, TWICE... who was nice to my face, who I gave more credit than that... it just makes me feel like a sucker.

On the other hand, this person is young, and though I don't think that is carte blanche for anything (and I hated it when people would say that, "oh, she's young," about me when I actually WAS young), it makes it easier for me to live with. As far as I know, she hasn't written, OR directed, OR produced a feature-length film. And she probably spent as much money going to school for it as people handed me to make my film, because they believe in me. So, you know, I can live with all of that.

Dealing with the Ex(es)

Pick-up dates are like old boyfriends. If enough time has passed, you kind of forget (or romanticize) the reasons why the guy/the production made you tear your hair out, and how you were so happy when it was over, and you kind of even look forward to seeing him/it again.

I am in the middle of trying to schedule pick-up dates for Charm City next week, pick-up dates for Juju the following week, scheduling some edit time for CC, and doing a little pre-pro reconnaissance for the Juju Director/Producer for his project immediately following the final wrap on Juju. Plus my "day job", so it is like I am working two full-time jobs at the same time. Oh, and there is a PBS crew filming some interviews for a documentary at my place right now. My stomach kinda hurts.

But it's all good. Scheduling is just a little bit of a nightmare for the CC pick-ups, more so than the Juju pick-ups. Since Juju's budget is several times the size of Charm City's, they could afford to hire actors who act for a living (and therefore, are often not working). Whereas on my little budget, I could only pay the actors what I call a "PIA" fee, which hopefully covered them for the money they spent on gas and wardrobe, so it didn't cost them money to be in my film (though for some, I know it did). But that means they all have day jobs (like me!) to pay the bills, and can't drop everything to film a few scenes. Still, I am hopeful we can all get together, and really I am looking forward to it. Now that I have another feature-length production under my belt, I feel a great deal more relaxed about the business, and confident in my abilities. It will take some patience, but I will get it done.

There are only a few actors that I need for the pick-ups (5 out of my dozen ensemble cast), and I am anxious to get together with them. I miss them, actually! All of them. I was so overwhelmed with responsibility at the time of principle photography that their weren't many moments that I was able to relax. But the cast had such great chemistry that they seemed to be laughing with each other all the time. It made me happy to see that, and it made me feel like I had chosen just the right actors. Life did seem to truly imitate art... imitating life... the way they all got along. But I was a little jealous at times that I couldn't join in whole-heartedly in the joking around. Just had too much on my plate. That's what comes with the territory when it is your project.

So, we'll see how it goes next week, with both the editing, which I am very anxious to get to, and the pick-up dates, which I am very anxious to check off my to-do list. Starting to think about what lies ahead. Do I start writing another script? I have one pretty well sketched out in my head, I think it would flow pretty quickly if I started putting it to paper. Or do I continue working on other people's projects? Am I down with OPP? Well, it is nice (a) to get paid and (b) to get SOME sleep. I may have the opportunity to do so soon. Adding some more credits to my resume would be nice, and especially since a lot of people who do this solely for a living can't always find a gig, it would probably be unwise to turn anything down, if I am to be serious, and taken seriously, about making a career change.

Productions really are like ex-boyfriends. I know some people don't get people (like me) who can be friends or friendly with there ex(es). And of course we all have those who screwed us over so badly that we never want to see them again (though usually those make for the most entertaining stories). But my philosophy about boyfriends is that I wouldn't have been attracted to them, I wouldn't have stayed with them for however long if they didn't have some good qualities, if I didn't have some fun with them, if I didn't care. So sometimes it is nice to see them again. And with the productions I've worked on so far, I definitely care, and it is important to put the finishing touches on them, to do it right. And like, with boyfriends, it makes it easier if you leave things on good terms, in the event that you see them again, say, at a local theater... :) Hopefully a local theater with your name in lights outside and a packed house inside!

Finish Line

"Juju," wrapped principle photography last night. I mean this morning. It was our second 20+ hour day this week. And I remember thinking what a killer day it was when we ran 15 hours on my set on "Charm City"!

It was quite an education and I am glad to have had the opportunity. I jumped into this business less than a year ago, and it is my fourth film credit (if you only count being writer/director/producer/etc on my own film as one credit). It was great to have done it back-to-back with my own film, as a lot of things were fresh in my mind. Making a movie is very similar to a group of people standing in a circle, every person with a gun in each hand, one of them pointed at the temple of the person to the left, one at the person to the right. We all are hostage to each other. One might think that the director or producer, whoever is writing the checks, has unlimited power, but that is really not the case. There are so many people you need on a set: the DP, PM (by now you must know these acronyms, or you just aren't paying attention), film crew, sound, make-up, props, catering, even down to the production assistants, who depending on the budget, might not even be getting paid at all. Even extras, who, as a group, pretty much screw you over every time. If twenty people swear on their respective grandmothers' graves that they will show up - count on five. On a good day.

You need ALL of these people and it is a lot of work to keep the peace and keep things moving at the same time. Coming fresh off my own film, it was still raw in my mind the people, events, and attitudes that made my life easier as a director/producer, and those that were counter-productive. "Juju" is the first feature-length project from this director and producer, and I told myself that as Production Manager, I was going to give them everything I wish people had given me, but didn't always come through on. That wasn't always easy to do, especially yesterday. I was nauseous most of the day, seemed to be fighting something flu-like, probably the result of our previous filming day which lasted from 10:00am Monday until after 6:00am Tuesday, and was all exteriors. We filmed at Wayne Shipley's field in Jessup, where the majority of his film, "One-Eyed Horse," was shot. FANTASTIC location and Wayne is the nicest guy in the world (as well as being very smart - he's got a distribution deal nearly locked up and has already sold over 1,100 DVDs). But by four a.m. it was pretty cold and my shoes were soaked from the dew in the tall grass and we were about out of bug repellant. I had arranged for a very nice tent from Absolute Party Rental and a very sanitary port-a-potty from Gotugo, but they didn't offer much in the way of warmth or shelter.

I knew from the start that yesterday was going to go just as long, and put that together with feeling crappy, I was probably a bit grumpy at the start of the production day. But we had a beautiful location at a mansion in Glen Burnie (yes! A MANSION in Glen Burnie!) and the lovely woman who owns the home allowed us to use her furnished, warm, comfortable basement for holding (anyone who is not on set) and catering. I actually found her on Craigslist! I am very wary of going into people's homes as locations, and I try to brace them for the assault. If they haven't done it before, they usually just think it is going to be cool and fun, and it is - but when they first see all that equipment and people rolling in... things can go downhill very quickly. But Mrs. Freeland has had filming at her house before and she was extremely hospitable and friendly, and it was a great place to end the shoot, ESPECIALLY because it rained off and all all day and night.

Super-long days like that can be all right, though. It seems like the first half of the day, people growl around at different stages, and then once everyone has accepted their fate to be stuck together for many, many more hours, everyone sorts of lets go of it. It happened on my set that way a couple times, which at the time made me nervous, because I felt guilty having everyone there so long, and I thought it was just the calm before the storm. But now I know. It was nice in a way to hang out with everyone yesterday. I think we were more relaxed because we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, even if it took us almost an entire rotation of the planet to get there.

"What is Past is Prologue"

Architect John Russell Pope placed four monumental statues around the National Archives Building. Each was cut from a single block of limestone weighing 125 tons. Aitken's "The Future" sits on the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the building. The young woman lifts her eyes from the pages of an open book and gazes into the future. Its base is inscribed with a line inspired by Shakespeare’s play The Tempest: "What is Past is Prologue."

Three weeks of "Juju" completed, and we are taking off a week to regroup, figure out the pieces still left of the puzzle, and schedule our pick-up days. Looks like we can get the last of it hammered out by the end of next week.

I have met some great people and great contacts on this job. The Writer/Director, Boyce, is quite a character. He is a perfectionist and refuses to cut corners. Most of the time he seems very serious, but once in awhile he just cracks me up. He is Nigerian, and has this great accent. On the set, Michelle (DP) is constantly asking him if he is happy (with the picture on the monitor, before she shoots it. I have heard him say more than once, "Happy as a LAAHK." It just seems so funny, coming from this big, stoic man! I guess you have to be there, though.

Stayce, the Producer, is a blast. She is the Voice of Reason, but she is also hysterical, and we laugh all day long. Which is a good thing, because the two of us are the ones that really never can have a full day off as long as this thing is still in production. Dealing with payroll, scheduling, location issues, budget, script changes, personnel... it never ends.

The coolest thing so far in this whole experience, though, has been the rewrites. There have been a few scenes we needed to change drastically, and on the fly. I took the liberty of making changes to a couple scenes to expedite things, and printed them up for Boyce, as suggestions. I thought what I had written might at least help figure out how to streamline some scenes or make changes to keep continuity straight, but Boyce liked the pages and kept them as I wrote them, and we shot them. I was expecting the actors to grumble about having to learn new pages in a day or two, but they seemed to like them, too (or else they are just realy good actors!).

Watching this unfold before my eyes was very different than watching my words come to life on the set of my own movie. At first I couldn't figure out why it felt so different, or what it was that felt so different about it. But it is dawning on me, and I suppose what it comes down to is control. It WAS very cool to make my own film and do it exactly the way I wanted to. But I had full control of that project from beginning to end, so of course it was going to go pretty much as I had envisioned it. But this film, "Juju," is not my baby. It is someone else's. And they approved what I did and incorporated some pretty good-sized chunks of my writing into the body of this piece of work. They could have dismissed it, or used part of it, or used only the gist of it, but they used it intact, and it worked. It is a good feeling, and it gives me confidence that I will eventually do what I have set out to do in this business primarily - to write.

The overall experience of being Production Manager on this project has been great, and such an education. I have been at the same hotel management job for going on eleven years now, and in that business for two decades. Hotel management is often crisis management, but I could do it in my sleep. I know I can have a job in this industry for the rest of my life if I want it, and there is some security in that. But there is also INsecurity in that, when you have been doing something for so long, and you start to wonder if you will be restricted to doing that and only that for the rest of your life because you have been doing that and only that for so long. You (and by "you" I mean "I") don't really know anything else, and you don't want to start at the bottom in something else. Between filming "Charm City" and being PM for "Juju," I am reassured that my skills in crisis management have not diminished, and I have been happily surprised at how well the skills I honed in my first career are carrying over into my (hopefully) second. I didn't go to school for hospitality management, and I have worked with and trained a lot of people who also did not and went on to do great things in the business. Often they were (mistakenly) convinced that they would at some point need to get a degree in the field if they were to move up. But I always told them, in the hotel business, you can go pretty damn far if you have three things:

!. Common sense,
2. personality, and
3. a willingness to pay your dues, in advance. In other words, never letting the words, "That's not my job," pass over your lips.

The same rules apply to film production, though more specific aspects of the field (writing, directing, camera work) call for more specific skills. But every day my confidence increases that I can have a successful career in this industry, doing what I was meant to do all my life - to write.

For now, the hotel job pays the bills while I learn the ins and outs of production. Then, soon, hopefully the production jobs will keep rolling in to pay the bills while I get my foot in the door with writing. Once I get my whole LEG in the door, I'm going to kick some ASS.

Triple Threat

Week 2 of Juju under the belt. Still had our bumps and bruises, but all in all things are smoothing out. I'm still working on figuring out exactly what niche in this field I would like to end up in, but Production Manager seems to suit me pretty well. I work best when I have a variety of tasks, a lot of responsibility (and leeway), and crisis mode, as much as it seems to suck while I'm in it, is where my brain is clicking rapid-fire. I have a good feeling at the end of the day when I can say, "We really pulled that one out of the fire." On a low-budget indie movie set, that happens more days than it doesn't. It is definitely a team effort, though, and I enjoy that aspect of it, too.

Last night we shot this very cool nightmare scene in my attic. The scene called for three children, so I called my aunt and uncle to let me use my little cousin Sean (who was in "Charm City" with his brother Joey) again. Joe is a little too old for what we were looking for, so Irene (my aunt) called some of Sean's friends parents and got me two little girls from Sean's class as well. Kids and dogs can be very tricky on the set, but so far I am three for three, in a good way. Sean and Joseph did a great job in their scene in my movie, my dogs and my neighbor Philip's dogs got their scene in "Charm City" perfect on the first take, and last night went with Sean and his friends went pretty perfectly.

It is very hard for little ones, if you can get them relaxed enough to not be scared or embarrassed, to do certain things like not look at the camera or not smile if it is a serious moment, but all three kids did very well. They are at an age where they are scared of ghosts and when they first got here they were afraid of the attic before they even saw it. But we let them play pool and eat lots of junk food for awhile first and then they were fine and bored and wanted to shoot the damn thing already. Sean had to move these large white pillar candles around very slowly from behind a shelf. He was backlit so it looked very cool and creepy, but because there was so much going on, lots of lights, and about a dozen other people standing in the room, he wasn't scared. Kyleigh, one of the girls, had to rock a (fake) baby while sitting in a dilapidated rocking chair, and silently and without smiling offer the baby to the lead character, Jake. She is such a sweetie, it was hard for her to do without smiling, but we got it. Also, the baby is actually a rubber model of a full-term fetus and it weighs at least 7 pounds. That is pretty heavy for a little girl, but she was a trooper. She would hold the baby out to Jake, and sometimes no one yelled, "cut," so she would just keep holding it until her little arms were shaking from the weight and I would tell her to put it down. The other little girl, Colleen, is a cutie with long red pigtails. She was a champ. When the other two got the giggles, she managed a straight face and took direction from Michelle, whom she had never met before, perfectly. She had to stare down Jake and be the creepiest of them all. It is amazing what lighting can do, change a sweet little girl with freckles into something from a terrifying nightmare! But it also took a lot of concentration on her part and it looked SO COOL. It is definitely my favorite scene that we have shot of this movie so far.

So in the last two months a lot has happened in my attic. A crazy woman of the Victorian era has chopped off a man's head with an axe, a greedy narcissist is visited in his nightmares by demonic children, and in between, a sassy middle-aged artist rediscovers her creative side and rebuilds her studio. Similar scenes have played out all over this building. When these three movies are completed, I want to watch them as a triple-feature. That will be a great lesson in the versatility of a location like this, and how lighting, acting, and the script can totally change the mood of the same room.

But today is Sunday, our day off, and I get to watch FOOTBALL!!!! I am so excited. Except I fear that I am not going to be able to see the Steelers game (die-hard Pittsburgh girl here, that is the "Steel" in "Steel Corset Productions") since they are playing at the same time as the Ravens, and I only have regular cable. At this point I'll take anything that can distract me from anything movie-related for a couple hours. Cuz then I gotta get back to work this afternoon/evening and map out our last week and a half of production, as there are several locations in flux. It will all work out, though, it always does. One more week and I'll have all these people out of my house! Then we move to the studio in Beltsville for a few days. Like my film, we had to add another three days of filming onto this one. So next time I plot and plan out a feature length production down to the minute and think I have it perfectly, reasonably scheduled, I will then scrap the whole thing and add three days to whatever I came up with at my first pass.

Gotta go spend some snuggle-time with my dogs before starting the day. Haven't had nearly enough of that in the last three months!

No time for love, Doctah Jones

Just finished Week 1 of production on, "Juju," so I have not had a lick of time to touch anything having anything to do with, "Charm City." But that is good, gives me a month or so away from it to get some perspective before attempting to edit or even to schedule the 2-3 days of pick-up shots that I need to complete photography. We have two more weeks on Juju, possibly even a little longer. Then one of the actors I need for pick-ups for Charm City is out of town until the second week of October, which I am actually glad for, I really will need a break after this.

Every production is its own education, and I am learning something new every day, especially about SAG (Screen Actors Guild) rules and payments. There are seven SAG actors on Juju, and about a dozen non-union actors. Although the paperwork can be a pain, if you are an actor, which is not the most secure job path in the world, I can see why actors work hard to get into SAG. Among other benefits, SAG actors get overtime after 8 hours on the set. Non-union actors usually get a flat rate, no matter how long the day goes - Wednesday we shot for NINETEEN hours. One of my non-union actresses is pretty sick right now, but she's not in the hospital because since she is a working actress, and non-union, she has no health insurance. It is such a difficult way to make a living. There is really nothing glamorous about it.

Which is true for most if not all jobs having to do with filmmaking. It is a lot of hard work. But when it is all said and done, hopefully you have a great piece you can be proud. I don't have children, but I think making a movie is a lot like what I have heard about childbirth - it is a pain that you forget. When you are in the midst of it, you may find yourself wondering why you thought this was a good idea, swearing you will never do it again, and possibly demanding pharmaceuticals at the top of your lungs to help you get through it. But then you have this beautiful creation that you had a hand in manifesting, and you start thinking about doing it all over again, because you only remember the good stuff.

At least that's how I HOPE it works. I'll let you know when my movie is done!

Recovery Checklist

Internet up here is spotty at best. I have access for a few minutes here and there, then it fades just as I am about to send an email or something, so I will keep this short.

Recommended items to speed recovery after shooting a feature-length film:

1. Dogs (squeezable, and they won't hold it against you when you are cranky and unbearable)
2. Convertible
3. Gorgeous weather
4. Friend with real estate in a desirable location
5. Unlimited access to said real estate
6. Nice restaurant near said real estate
7. Outlet shopping near said real estate
8. At least one credit card you have not maxed out on the feature-length film, to be used at said restaurant and outlets
9. Box of wine

I am pretty well set.

Back to Baltimore and on to the next film tomorrow. I have been hired as Production Manager on a film titled, "Juju," which starts production on Monday. It is a paying gig, which should just about cover the 2-3 days of pick-up shots that I need to schedule with Michelle to complete my own film, as well as the damage I did at the outlets today. But hey, I am going to be one well-dressed Production Manager!

Post Time

I am so exhausted. I was driving today to return some of the gorgeous artwork that I had on loan for the production from Oletha Davis, Linda DePalma, and Ellen Burchenal, and I found myself wondering, "Why is my car going so slowly?" The answer to this question was, "Because you need to exert energy to press down on the accelerator pedal." Even that was an effort. I went to my friend Christie's going away party tonight - for five minutes. I just have nothing left for anyone until I can recharge my batteries for a few days. Tomorrow morning I head to Mikey's cabin in the Poconos to do just that.

Last night was the Wrap Party at the Wind-Up Space. Beforehand I took Michelle Farrell (Director of Photography), Michael Bordenick (Executive Producer), and Eric Thornett (Production Consultant, Touchstone, Sounding Board and Junior Therapist) to dinner at the always outstanding Prime Rib. I cannot describe to you how nice it was to relax for that little bit of time, and to be in such good company. I could not have survived this without all three of them keeping me sane. I feel so much lighter today, such a weight off of my shoulders. Of course, that may just be that floaty feeling I get from sleep deprivation.

The party was so much fun. Tucker and the boys rocked it out while we screened some raw footage (thank you Greg Almond!) on the big screen behind them. The Wind-Up is such an awesome place for just such a party, and for filming on location as well. It was cool to see footage of scenes we shot there playing on the wall in the very same space! I think the actors especially appreciated being able to see some of the work they had done come to fruition. It takes so long to edit a feature-length, I was glad to give them a bit of immediate gratification, and it was really fun for me also.

Later in the evening, from out of nowhere I was presented with a beautiful cake decorated with a "slate" that had "Charm City" and my name on it, a card signed by members of the cast and crew, and a gleaming golden, "Oscar", also with my name on it. I was astounded. Some people hate surprises or surprise parties. I love them. I have thrown several for other people, and I know how much planning and thought goes into anything like that. It meant the world to me that my crew and cast would be so thoughtful about doing something nice for me after I had worked them so hard for weeks. It was a moment of overwhelming satisfaction, appreciation, and just plain happiness that I shall never forget, and I thank every one of them from the bottom of my heart for giving me that moment and that memory.

I have learned so much in the last few weeks (and months) and I have so much still to tell you about, but I want to leave it there for now, I want to enjoy the feeling of this moment before rehashing everything that led up to it. It definitely had (and will continue to have, in post, I'm sure) its ups and downs, but for the most part it was simply an amazing experience, and the biggest challenge in my life thus far. That is no exaggeration. But here I am, smile on my face, and gratitude in my heart to all of the people who helped me to manifest my vision into tangible reality, I hope you are enjoying the moment with me. You deserve it.

Still Alive

And that is all that I have the energy to write. Last day of filming tomorrow. Wrap party Friday. 9pm-close at the Wind-Up Space, 12 West North Avenue. See you there...

Two-Martini Breakfast

Today is a day "off", as in, no filming, though that certainly is NOT as in, no work. I have a very long list of things to do and people to talk to, but while I have a moment here at 7:50a.m. before my phone starts ringing off the hook and the cavalcade of emails begins, I thought I'd give you an update, as in, vent.

Actually, it's not too bad. Well, it is, but I am still enjoying it and we have gotten a lot done.

Day 2

Day 2 was filming the big finale scene at Government House. The place looked beautiful, with artwork by Linda DePalma, Oletha Devane, Ellen Burchenal, Dr. Leslie King-Hammond, Caren Shelley, and even myself on the walls, tables, and mantlepieces. We had a good many extras, and all our primary actors were dressed to the nines for the big to-do.

This day was and will probably remain the biggest filming challenge of the production. I had my heart set on as lengthy a continuous shot as we could manage. I talked to Michelle and her crew about it on one of our pre-pro days. At first they were a little reluctant, but Michelle quickly got on board and welcomed the challenge. It took us from 8:00am to 6:00pm, TEN HOURS, and about 50 people including extras to get the shot completed, and it will amount to about one MINUTE of filming. There is no scripted dialogue in the scene, so there was seven pages of scheduled dialogue we didn't get to that day, and we went over 12 hours for the day so it cost me another $100 to order pizza for everyone for a second meal. But the important thing is that WE DID IT! On a budget like mine, a shot like that is usually out of the question, it takes SO much time to set up and SO many takes, though I think we got it in less than 10 takes. This is Michelle's tenth feature-length film and she said is was the hardest shot she has ever done. I am so psyched about it, I can barely wait to start editing. Now I just have to figure out when I am going to shoot those other 7 pages we missed, that is the hard part now.

Also on this day, Tucker's band was in the scene. The harmonica (among other instruments) player, Wayne Werner, is also a jeweler who makes incredible custom pieces, and he and I had worked out a deal for a bit of product placement. He made two stunning custom pendants just for the film, and he brought them along. Cheryl and Tiffany, my actresses who will be wearing them in the scenes, were so excited, but not as excited as I was - I get to keep one of them!

Everyone was so patient that day, especially the extras who had so little to do for most of the day, but stuck around even when we ran late. Some of them even called off work or went in late so they could stick around and be a part of it all. That was awesome.

At the end of the day, Michelle was frustrated because she felt we hadn't "made our day" (filmed all pages scheduled) for the second day in a row. But the continuous shot that took us ten hours was never really factored into that on paper, it is just something we talked about briefly beforehand, and we were able to make it work. So, I was okay with that. Pretty satisfied, actually, and very proud of the whole crew that made it happen. So happy, in fact, that I forgot about the fire alarm that went off when someone accidentally hit a pull station. Things happen, not a big deal, just a little more stress on the pile.

But the best part of the day for me was when we were done, when I finally got a chance to talk to Al Letson and Eric Thornett at the end of the day. Al flew up here from Jacksonville for no other reason than to be in my movie. The first day we didn't even get to his scene, though I am still hoping to pick that up sometime while I am in post-production. The second day he was an extra and it was all hurry-up-and-wait, and he had no dialogue. Finally the third day, he had a great scene at Dougherty's and it worked very well.

Al is in pre-production for his own show on National Public Radio, "State of the Re:Union", so he doesn't exactly have nothing on his plate. But he still made time for me and my project and that means the world to me. I hadn't seen him since February and it did me good to spend a little (too little) time with him. We didn't have much time to speak privately, but we squeaked out a few minutes. In the film, he is nicknamed, "The Voice of Reason," and he is exactly that to me. He is a solid sounding board and always tells me the truth, and I trust his opinions and respect his creative vision. He gives me a little nudge when I need it, whether in a project or in a personal matter. I would feel stupid if I ever failed in front of him, not because he would try to make me feel that way, but because I know that the only way I can fail would be due to my own laziness, and I would never want to lose Al's respect. He told me I had, "brass ones," for even attempting that continuous shot. That felt great to hear.

I've only known Eric since January, but he has quickly cut through the ranks to become another barometer against which I measure my own success and fortitude. More importantly, he is someone I know I can call at anytime, and often do. He came out Friday night (he lives an hour away) just to help me all day Saturday. He was never further than arm's reach all day, and if I asked him for anything it was done in seconds, and if I didn't ask him for anything, he asked me if I needed anything. I was so spent by the end of it all, but once the last pizza-eaters left and Al went to bed, Eric stayed up with me for awhile, cleaning up the kitchen and just talking. He is another one that if I were to fail in front of, I would be so disappointed in myself. I know that wouldn't effect our friendship, but it does drive me. It is good to have people around you like that when you are taking on such a huge challenge. And just as important to have people around that make you smile, and to put an arm around you at the end of a long day.

Day 3

Day 3 was our first of two days filming at Dougherty's Pub on West Chase Street, a few blocks from where I live in Mount Vernon. This is a fantastic place to film, so easy, because it is one of the few WIDE bars in Baltimore, plus it is very easy (relatively speaking) to hang lights from the drop ceiling. Another plus was that the artwork on the wall this month (they change up the first Thursday of every month) was by local artist Jillian Jenkins, and it could not BE any more perfect for filming. She has gorgeous black and white prints that practically jump off the wall, interspersed with a couple large-scale paintings and some smaller pieces grouped at one end. Her artwork figures prominently in some of the scenes and I am happy to show off her work and increase my production values at the same time.

We were pretty on-schedule on this day. Though we didn't get as much coverage (close-ups of individual actors) as I would have liked, simply because of time restrictions, the wide shots look very good and I have plenty to work with. Especially one shot in the pool room, using a jib ON a dolly made for a VERY cool shot that I can't wait to use.

Day 4

Another day at Dougherty's. Call time was a brutal 6:00am, and thankfully our last call that early. This one started off a bit rough, issues with transporting the gear. Not worth it to get into the details of it, but those problems combined with an early call time did not make for a pleasant launch for the shooting day, and Michelle and I snapped at each other a bit, unfortunately in front of the crew. I don't like that kind of thing, and had we been in my regular environment of the hotel business, I would have labeled it very unprofessional of us both. But making movies is a whole 'nuther animal, and there is no time to talk privately, and sometimes no luxury of having a private place to do so. Since all eyes are on the Director and the DP at all times, it would have made an even bigger deal of it than it was to step away, so best to get it out in the open and get it over with.

I don't know if that little exchange had anything to do with it or not, but the film crew was so great to me for the rest of the day, I never had to wait for anything. We moved very quickly, and my sound connection and half apple were always on hand. An apple box is simply a wooden box that is used to make people taller or to sit on, and a half apple is just half as high. Michelle is at least a foot taller than I am, which makes it difficult for both of us to have a good look at the monitor while filming, so I stand on a half apple, or sometimes I have to do things like climb on top of the bar or a booth. One of the crew, Z, was always there with a sound blanket for me to kneel or sit on when I had to do that. Little things like that make the day so much less painfully, literally and figuratively.

The (very) good thing about Michelle and me both is that once an issue is resolved, we can both let it go pretty quickly and move on. And that is exactly what we did, and it turned out to be our best day so far. We finished 8 1/2 pages including coverage, and we even finished 10 minutes early!

When I stepped outside of Dougherty's for a moment at one point, I met a woman who was standing in front of Tyson's bar next door. Her name is Allison Pasarew, and she had been talking to some of my crew and she asked if I needed any more artwork for the film, she had a couple pieces hanging in Tyson's. So I took a look, and after filming was over I came back with my car and borrowed two of her pieces which I will use in a scene we are shooting tomorrow. God Bless Smalltimore.

Also, I can't say enough about our Production Crew. We have an army of interns who have just been amazing. Regina Guy, Corey Davis, and David Sarmiento were my first-enlisted and they are my A-team. They are all there every day, pretty much from beginning to end, never complain, do anything asked of them and do it quickly, very self-motivated and don't wait to be told what to do, if something needs to be done, they just do it. Regina makes breakfast for the crew every day, which means she is up even earlier than them or me, so you can imagine how tired she was yesterday, as she had to be here and have breakfast made by 5:30a.m.! The rest of the crew are great as well, Erinn is our make-up artist, Shernay, Bill, Dylan, and Lin are other Production Assistants (and often extras), and also Brittany Sweatt, though sometimes I forget she is actually mine because Michelle stole her from me, and she has been doing a stellar job with the film crew as slater and monitor mover, among other things. She just wrapped production on Renee Zellweger's film, "My One and Only," so she has great experience under her belt already and is usually one step ahead of everyone.

That's not the long of it, just the short of it, and you probably already think it is too long, so I am going to sign off now and tackle a to-do list as long as my arm (and my other arm, and both legs...). That has something to do with the title of this posting, which I almost forgot to tie in. As I have had zero time to do anything personal, every glass in my apartment needs to be washed, except for the martini glasses, so that is what I had to use at breakfast this morning. We are filming a couple scenes in my apartment tomorrow, so I'd better get on that.